Born in San Fernando, Philippines, Brillante Mendoza started his career as a production designer of TV commercials and feature films after studying commercials at the University of Santo Tomas, in Manila. For his first feature film, Masahista (2005), he jointly received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival. After that, he was received many awards at international film festivals for his films such as Summer Heat (2006), Manoro (2006), Slingshot (2007), and Kinatay (2009) screened in Competition at Cannes 2009.